Rage and incomprehension fueled my Flame with Frenzy.

  I channeled it through my meridians and instantly engaged my Deity Form. In a flash my body transitioned into the red-skinned Struggler, my senses augmenting with it. The cries became individual pleas for mercy and salvation as the magnitude of [Everyone’s Pain] registered on a planetary scale.

  The shock of my transformation caused the chaos to pause for a moment, everyone looking at me now. Fia caught my attention immediately, grasping my hand. She said only one word.

  “Bryce…”

  I could still sense the Dark Frenzy in the air, radiating from the Bloodmoon, but strangely it wasn’t as strong as I’d sensed it before in the past. Much weaker in fact, like it was a new moon or something. Still, it was there and I wasn’t taking any chances with Bryce on that.

  “He’ll be safe with Kel Zhi,” I said. “You all will.”

  “What are we going to do?” Fia said.

  I looked to the guards who seemed to be still manning the gate, and then I realized they were actually pushing people back, stopping them from entering.

  “Who the hell is in charge here?” I bellowed at them.

  “He is!” Rhi Dong pointed to a short man with a beard, dressed in Imperial Robes.

  The man squinted his eyes as he stared back at her. “Wait! Are you those damn mummers from Jurin?”

  “What?” I said, but I shook the thought from my head. There were bigger things to puzzle out now. “Nevermind. What the hell is going on here?”

  I pretty much knew, but I needed confirmation.

  “The princess ordered a withdrawal,” the guard said, reaching into his robes to hand me something.

  I looked down at it.

  By Imperial Decree of the High Council, the world of Terra has been bequeathed to the Duke Iron Bull. The Imperial Cities and those loyal to her Majesty, Third Princess Lunalah shall depart for the Core Worlds hence with. Those left behind and seeking shelter from the Bloodmoon should petition the newly appointed ruler for such.

  Third Princess Lunalah 257th Heir to the throne.

  The letter was marked with the Imperial seal.

  Ling Wei took it from me and read it aloud for everyone to hear.

  “I can’t believe this,” she said. “She’s really gone and done this?”

  “How?” I looked to Zin Tai. “Aren’t you here to make sure stuff like this doesn’t happen? How’s she able to do something like this legally?”

  “She isn’t,” he said. “But I’ve arrived the same time as you. Besides, what’s done is done now. Perhaps you can appeal to the courts for damages and lay new charges.”

  “Damages and charges?” This guy had to be kidding. “People are dying out there, man!”

  “Look, are you him?” the guard asked, drawing my attention. “The Duke? Cause if you are, you need to do something about all this.”

  He gestured to the mayhem and the crowd before us.

  “Please!” someone shouted. “There is no protection!”

  “We need to get through that gate or we’ll be slaughtered.”

  “Let us through the gate! Please!”

  That sparked a whole new panic in the crowd as people began pushing to get inside.

  “How long ago?” I asked the guard.

  “What?”

  I pointed at the letter. “How along ago since that was sent?”

  “Not sure. Maybe twelve hours ago? Look, if you’re the Duke Iron Bull, then do something about your people.”

  The words struck me like a thunderbolt.

  Your people…

  Up until a second ago, being a Duke was nothing more than a title, a means to an end, but now shit was hitting the fan and regardless of who caused it, I was now the one responsible for making it right. The Struggler took on a whole new dimension of burdens that weighed upon my soul.

  I was no longer just Max Chun the individual.

  I was Max Chun the ruler.

  And all of these people were under my charge.

  “Let them through,” I said.

  “What?” The guard balked. “With respect, Duke Iron Bull, I represent the City of Yee Guo and these here have no authorization for travel to the Core Worlds.”

  He had to be kidding.

  “Zin Tai can you sort this mess out please?”

  “Uh… not legally, your grace,” Zin Tai said. “Admittedly, these are all things that should have been handled beforehand. Technically Terra no longer has the right to even possess an Omni Gate as a Sovereign Dependent Territory, much less use it.”

  Sovereign Dependent Territory? “What the hell does that even mean?”

  “It means these people can’t travel freely to the Core Worlds,” the guard said. “Not anymore. Your planetary status has changed. Even you would have to apply to the council for an entry permit to return.”

  Shit, no wonder they were escorting us out.

  The infuriating bureaucracy of the situation caused my Flame to surge.

  “Alright, to hell with this noise. Just let them all through. Now!”

  “I can’t,” the guard insisted. “The cost alone would be astronomica—”

  “Then frigging bill me!” I thundered at him with [Fear the Flame]. “Now move!”

  Fear bloomed from inside him as he finally stood down his men. The flood gates literally opened then, people running and screaming for their salvation. I looked to the rest of the city next. What was left of the militia was battling demons in the streets, but there were far more on the outskirts just outside the defense wall.

  “I need to go thin this out,” I said.

  “Wait!” Jian Yi caught me by the arm. “What about Jurin?”

  Shit…

  “What time is it there?” I looked to the sky. “Is it night fall?”

  “It’s nearly dawn here,” Ling Wei said. “Which means it will be a couple of hours or so before the sun sets in Jurin. I’m not sure how fast you travel now, Iron Duke, but you need to move quickly if you wish to get there.”

  My heart thundered in my chest. If all the Imperial City’s had gone, then Jurin would be left wide open. I thought of all the people I still knew back home. Lisa and Elric, all my old neighbors and friends in the square. Mu Lin and Xi Xha who had left before I went to Dokumu. Plus, the thousands more who were relying on me to protect them as their Sect Leader and Warden.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  I couldn’t save every city on the planet, but I could try to save at least two.

  I manifested my Axe and summoned my Frenzy, imbuing it with a fraction of my very soul. “[Sacred Brand of the Frenzied Flame]….”

  As I whispered the words, the Axe glowed with a luminance that only Kelsey and I could see. Her eyes widened at the sight of it as she could no doubt feel the harmonic resonance it now produced.

  I handed it to her. “Kelsey, take this to the center of the city. Protect what’s worth protecting. Ling Wei will let you know where. I’m not sure how wide its influence is now, but it’s got to be stronger than the axe you have now.”

  She nodded. “Just go, I got this. It’ll be dawn soon here anyway. Just go.”

  I nodded back at her. “If anything goes wrong, just head back through the gate.”

  “Please, just go and save Jurin,” Jian Yi said.

  I gave Fia a final kiss before vaulting into the pre-dawn sky with [Lightning Walk].

  I performed a wide arc of the city and unleased multiple volleys of [Lightning Kiln of Fury] to incinerate the hordes of demons just outside the defense wall. The demons were the normal kind, red skinned and humanoid. Not unlike myself right now.

  They were riled up, but again not like what I was used to seeing them under the effects of a full Bloodmoon.

  Whatever I’d done on Dokumu had made some kind of change.

  But for better or worse I still wasn’t sure.

  I let the thought linger as I shifted into [Mark of the Arch Demon] and [Mark of the Savage]. I then pointed westward and unleashed everything I had into [Ride the Lightning] taking off at supersonic speed.

  *   *   *

  I counted the seconds as I flew, racing across the umbra of the sun.

  I passed at least two more cities drowning in demons and flames as I crossed Asia and several more through Europe before beginning my traversing of the Atlantic. There was nothing I could do for them. As smaller cities, their virtually non-existent militias were quickly over run and their centers destroyed. Jurin would suffer the same fate if I didn’t get there in time.

  I wondered then if it might have been faster to have flown East across the Pacific instead, but I was too far committed and to poor at Geography to have made the call before I’d left. I flew with the night over the darkened waters, draining my Dantian with abandon.

  My mind wondered as I contemplated the loss.

  It was almost too great to fathom.

  As I stretched my senses, I could feel the millions of lost souls crying out in desperation and despair. I couldn’t even bring myself to focus my anger and hate on the one responsible. Not yet. Too great was the grief and sorrow entering my soul.

  I cultivated the Frenzy it generated from my Flame, using it to push myself even faster to save the last city that I could. The sky began to lighten as I neared the edge of the night. Once I hit the Easten coast of North America, I used Threja’s Sword as a Compass to focus in on my home. It took barely twenty minutes to reach it and then just a few more as I passed over the all too familiar stretch of wilderness between the bunker and Jurin.

  I arrived to find a turmoil of panic and chaos in the dying twilight, people looting and screaming in the streets. Just like I’d figured, the Imperial City was already gone and the demons were swarming at the edge of the night, barely minutes away now.

  I flew to the old Native Housing District and summoned my Phalanx Glaive to imbue it with a protective barrier of its own. I then dropped [Mark of the Savage] to look less beastly and used my Frenzy to augment my voice to call out for the one person I knew would still be on guard.

  “Zu Tien!”

  It took her less than a second to appear, running out of the guard booth.

  She was dressed in armor and the robes of the Terran Clan, weapons already in hand. A score of similarly dressed cultivators joined her as she looked up into the sky. Her eyes then widened as lemonade poured from her soul.

  “Sect Master Chun? Is that you?”

  “Yes, but I haven’t got much time to explain,” I said as I tossed my glaive into the courtyard. “That blade is producing a barrier that will repel the demons, but it won’t be big enough to save the whole city. Take the people from here and lead them into the heart of the residential district. Try to save as many as you can by bringing them along the way.”

  She gave a quick one-handed salute. “I will do so, master.”

  “Good. I’ll try to keep out as many as I can the old-fashioned way.”

  She furrowed her brow questioningly, but I didn’t have time to explain.

  “Just go!”

  She nodded and began yelling orders to her subordinates who quickly responded by banging on doors and getting people out of their homes. I did my best to do the same as I made my way towards the defense wall, yelling for people to head to the city center.

  When I finally reached the outskirts, I found the only other person I expected to still be at his post. There, perched atop a lookout tower at the far end of my old handler station, was Lee.

  He jumped with a start as I came to a stop next to him using a burst of [Lightning Walk].

  “Yo! What the hell!” he cried.

  He then finally seemed to realize it was me and his eyes grew wide with recognition and disbelief. “Holy shit! Is that freaking you, Chun?”

  I slapped him on the back. “Good to see you, Lee.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh as my old friend tackled me with a hug.

  Still the slacker redheaded kid entrusted with way more responsibility than seemed prudent. In this case he appeared to be overseeing dozens of handlers who still looked to be making in in from the wild. Just ahead of them was a line of soldiers. A line that looked way too thin to hold back a single wave of demons, much less the endless hordes that would come throughout the night.

  “Damn I’m glad to see you, man, and shit, you ascended? This is unreal.”

  “I know right,” I said. “Wish this reunion were under better circumstances.”

  Lee looked instinctively to the darkening sky and where the glowing pagoda should have been. “Yeah, no kidding. So you can stop all this right?”

  “I’m going to try. Pull back to the city center as soon as you can. I have a barrier set up there that will ward of any stray demons that get through.”

  “I hear that. Thanks, boss.”

  “I’ll going to go back up the defense line.”

  “More like they’re gonna back you up. Give ‘em hell, Chun!”

  I gave him a nod and was off. I blasted towards the soldiers on guard and could sense their fear. The Bloodmoon was on the rise and the howls of the demons were getting closer. Shouts began to rise from the troops as they spotted me hovering above them.

  “It’s a demon!”

  “No, it can’t be!”

  “Wait, is that the Warden?”

  Fear shifted to Lemonade as I quickly turned to address them. “Listen up! What you are about to face will not be easy, but I will stand with you. I will create an aura that will shield you from the effects of the Bloodmoon. Fight for as long as you can, but if you have to retreat, head to the city center to defend there.”

  I was asking way too much of these guys and most of them knew it.

  This was the equivalent of asking them to pass the final legionnaire’s exam with no Bloodmoon conditioning at all. I just prayed the weakened Bloodmoon effect would somehow make a difference.

  I also had no weapons.

  But I’d be mainly using area of effect bursts from [Wrath of a Thousand Slain Souls] and [Lightning Kiln] anyway. I activated my [Sacred Soul Shield] as the first wave of demons appeared on the darkened horizon.

  “Hold the line!” I cried, and dove in with a [Lightning Drill of Fury].

  Hundreds of demons exploded and turned to blackened ash as my technique tore through them. I wasted no time in launching another, killing more demons as I tapped into my [Bloodlust] to maintain the Frenzy in my Dantian. There was nothing hard about it. I’d faced much worse on the Hell Worlds and even Du Gok Bhong, but killing them was not the issue.

  Killing all of them was.

  I raced up and down the line of soldiers, desperate to assist each section, but I couldn’t be everywhere at once. As soon as I killed a wave of demons and moved on, I took the protective barrier of my [Sacred Soul Shield] with me. When I eventually returned to the same section of line again, more than half the soldiers were suffering from Bloodmoon exposure, either going mad or running for the city. I kept it up for hours, trying to wear down the demon hordes but they came endlessly, perhaps sensing the protection of the barrier was now gone and seeing this as a final push for victory.

  This isn’t going to work, I realized.

  Not all night.

  I looked up at the moon and considered one last risky move.

  I still didn’t understand what the hell was going on up there and there was only one way to find out.

  “Keep fighting!” I shouted to the small handful of soldiers left around me. “I’ll be back in a second!”

  “What?” they all cried.

  But I didn’t have to leave them physically.

  I slipped into the Spiritual Realm with my [Sacred Soul Projection] and raced to seek out the nearest portal. I didn’t even know if I’d find one, but there had to be for these things to keep coming from nowhere.

  I sensed a concentration of Dark Frenzy and headed towards it, finding the all too familiar inverted triangle of the Chainmaiden’s portal.

  Bingo.

  I jumped through it, following the chains and falling towards the red surface of the moon. I crashed into it with [Wrath of a Million Slain Souls] destroying the huge sea of Demonic Spirits waiting for me there, but surprisingly, the level of Dark Frenzy I was expecting, was not.

  I then banged on one of the crystals to see if the Chainmaiden would appear.

  She didn’t.

  Perhaps I had killed her after all.

  Was this place empty then?

  I headed for the giant portal at the center of the moon next, clearing out the demons as I went. The next level down I experienced the same thing, the pressure of Dark Frenzy even less than the level above.

  What the hell was going on?

  It was like everything was reversed from what it was before.

  I contemplated taking out the anchor crystal that was linking the demonic plane back to Earth’s moon but paused. That should free the moon from I’xol’ukz’s control, right?

  Or would it?

  I wasn’t sure.

  There was one more level to go.

  One more that perhaps held the answers I needed.

  I descended once more, arriving in the crystal lined domain of the Chainmaiden’s core.

  Or what I had assumed was her core.

  Just like above there was very little Dark Frenzy here, but there was something else.

  Right at the center was the Chainmaiden herself.

  She was enormous, filling nearly the entire void of space within the crystal lined spectral plane. She was bound spread eagle, tethered at the wrists and ankles and impaled by dozens of chains. Her broken wings were stripped to bare bones and her eyes bound behind a blindfold made of chain itself.

  I expected to feel the extreme spiritual pressure of a Cursed Star.

  But I felt almost nothing.

  I expected her to attack as well, or to at least shout at me for violating her domain like she did before. Instead, she did something I didn’t expect at all.

  She smiled.

  “Welcome Foul Husk. What did takest thou so long to seeketh me?”